Fabian
Tom Simon
Fabian is one of the teen idol singers of the late 50's/early 60's. By
the time his popularity on the charts began to fade in the early
1960's he had managed to place eight records in the top forty, and
three of those in the top ten. He also has had a notable career as an
actor in television and movies.
He was born in Philadelphia in 1943 as Fabiano Anthony Forte. Like
many of the other teenage singers who came from Philadelphia, Forte
attended South Philly High School. A friend there, Frankie Avalon,
recommended him to Bob Marcucci and Peter DeAngelis, co-owners of
Chancellor Records. They found him sitting on the front porch of his
home, lamenting the recent departure of his policeman father via
ambulance. Intrigued by his good looks and unconventional name,
Marcucci and DeAngelis signed him to a record contract in 1957, before
Fabian had reached his fifteenth birthday. The two label owners
regarded him as a cross between two enormously popular singers of the
day, Elvis Presley and Rick Nelson, and thought the kid would be able
to sell some records. They were right. Although he had not aspired to
a career in entertainment, Fabian was given an image that did not
accurately reflect the person that he was, and he was successfully
promoted as a teen idol.
Fabian initially recorded at Chancellor with another act on the label
known as the Four Dates, producing only a few singles that went
nowhere. Fabian appeared at a Dick Clark record hop pantomiming the
words to I'm A Man, and received a rousing reaction, primarily from
the young girls in the crowd. His recording of the song became his
first top forty single, early in 1959. Presley had recently left for a
stint in the service, leaving the door wide open for an act with the
appeal of someone such as Fabian.
Fabian appeared on Clark's American Bandstand television program,
toured with Clark's Caravan of Stars, and came up with a top ten hit
in Turn Me Loose. Like a number of Fabian's hits, these first two were
written by the legendary Brill Building songwriting team of Doc Pomus
and Mort Shuman. Next came what proved to be his biggest hit at number
three in the top forty, Tiger. Fabian recorded most of his songs under
the guidance of producer DeAngelis, and it was not long before he
grabbed the attention of Hollywood movie producers. He had a featured
role in the movie Hound Dog Man from which came two more hits Hound
Dog Man and This Friendly World toward the end of 1959. It had been a
good year for the now 16-year-old kid from Philadelphia.
He appeared in the film North To Alaska with John Wayne. Fabian showed
that he had screen appeal. He continued recording for Chancellor with
two more top forty records in early 1960, About This Thing Called Love
and String Along. A guest appearance as a killer on the 1961
television program Bus Stop tended to slow his career down somewhat
and in hindsight, may have been a bad move for him. Other film
appearances came the following year in Mr. Hobbs Takes A Vacation and
The Longest Day. In all he appeared in more than thirty motion
pictures.
The US House of Representatives began to investigate the promotion of
"talentless" stars in its look at payola, with the promotion of the
young singer as one of their targets, but there was no denying that
Fabian had quite an appeal. His records were no longer selling as well
as the music scene began to change in the 60's, but he continued with
his acting career. Fabian appeared on a number of television programs
over the years, among them Wagon Train, The F.B.I., and The Hardy
Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries . By the 70's he had become known as Fabian
Forte, and appeared in a beefcake spread in a women's magazine,
something that he later regretted. He worked to support California
governor Jerry Brown with community projects on the West Coast. The
1980 film Idolmaker was based on the life of Bob Marcucci and featured
thinly-disguised portraits of both Fabian and Frankie Avalon. Not
pleased by the way he was portrayed in the film, Fabian filed suit and
received an out-of-court settlement in 1986.
In 1998 Fabian married Andrea Patrick, a former Miss Pennsylvania USA
and Miss West Virginia USA. They live on a 20-acre spread in
southwestern Pennsylvania. He continues to perform, sometimes in
Branson, Missouri and often with other pop music artists of his era
such as Bobby Vee, Brian Hyland, and Chris Montez. And he tours at
times with his old pals from Philadelphia, Frankie Avalon and Bobby
Rydell. For his contributions to the entertainment industry, in 2002
he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Fabian is most
closely associated with his three top ten hits Turn Me Loose, Tiger
and Hound Dog Man, all recorded before he reached the age of
seventeen.
50s
Yawn
Scarlotti
I recently watched Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation. Fabian played the
juvenile lead and was extremely likable. For some reason which the
film never explains, he grows a beatnik style goatee over the course
of the summer. My favorite Fabian role, however, was the doomed Mike
Raven (lead singer of Mike Raven & The Blackbirds) in Ten Little
Indians.
Uni
Never did get into Fabian much, but nice write-up, Tom!
Happy New Year!
Uni
stonej
He was also in an Irwin Allen adventure movie from 1962 called "Five
weeks in a balloon", I think he
did a song and romanced a girl as well. Not a great movie but
entertaining in its own way.
Uni
I THINK he did the song Turn Me Loose - just didn't do much for me.
Thanks! :-)
Uni
Tim
Because of the make believe dweeb-performers known as Fabian / Frankie
Avalon / Annete Funecello / Ed Burns and others .. the Fifties had no
choice but to die a smelly rancid death.
50s
Fabian and Frankie are stil performing today, 50 years after the 50s
ended.
Many 60s artists that you like are long since out of the business.
Jan Dean
> Because of the make believe dweeb-performers known as Fabian / Frankie
> Avalon / Annete Funecello / Ed Burns and others .. the Fifties had no
> choice but to die a smelly rancid death.
Good God!!
What did the wonderful Annette ever do to you?!?!?
And it's spelled FUNICELLO!
Misogynist!!
Tim
LOL .....I too had an adolescent crush on her and on her properly
spelled names/melons. There's no denying that, Although it was Haley
Mills who was my main hollywood heartthrob, back when I was all of
Twelve or so. Also IIRC I think Annette should have been doing Marty
when she was doing Spin instead. Alls forgiven now, though, cept
Annette couldn't write muzak.
Tim
> > choice but to die a smelly rancid death
>
> Fabian and Frankie are stil performing today, 50 years after the 50s
> ended.
Where ... at Branson or traveling Reno lounge acts, perhaps.
>
> Many 60s artists that you like are long since out of the business.
Nothing at all wrong with taking the money and settling down.
50s
All over the country.
>
>
>
> > Many 60s artists that you like are long since out of the business.
>
> Nothing at all wrong with taking the money and settling down.
Except that's not what happened to most of them. Their careers fizzled
out quickly as the people who liked them got off of drugs and realized
that the music blowed. The demand for their stuff died out and they
had to go out and the artists themselves turned to drugs and/or died.
Here's a perfect example:
Love
MacLean, suffering from heroin addiction, soon left the band, as did
all the other members except Lee. MacLean later emerged as a
Contemporary Christian artist. Echols and Forssi also experienced the
ravages of heroin addiction and disappeared from the scene. Arthur
Lee, as the only remaining member, convened a new lineup and continued
recording as Love. The reconstituted version of Love, which included
Jay Donnellan and Gary Rowles on guitars, Frank Fayad on bass, and
George Suranovich on drums, played in a blues-rock style very
different from the band's previous line-up. Three albums were released
by various permutations of this lineup: Four Sail (1969), Out Here
(1969), and False Start (1970). The latter featured a guest appearance
by Jimi Hendrix. Arthur Lee released the solo album Vindicator in
1972, followed by a final official Love album, Reel to Real (1974),
recorded by Lee and session musicians. Love was finally discontinued
in the late 1970s, and various plans to reunite various Love lineups
in the following years did not come to fruition.
Arthur Lee went to prison for 6 years for firearms offenses.
While Avalon and Fabian have been working non stop for 55 years.
Sharx35
"Tim" <tdwill...@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:007e4afb-df45-4afe...@m25g2000yqc.googlegroups.com...
Regardless, the 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s have been the absolute, TOTAL fucking
shits...musically speaking.
Sharx35
"Tim" <tdwill...@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:1ccf7926-fea9-4688...@22g2000yqr.googlegroups.com...
They had no choice, crap like them couldn't even get hired in dives.
>
Jan Dean
She didn't need to. She was a Pineapple Princess.